RUN RABBIT

Little rabbit
hopping in the desert
hops around the sage bush
hopping on quick feet.

Little rabbit
hopping in the desert
hops around the saguaro
looks for greens to eat.



    A rabbit hopped quickly past me on my walk this morning.  Our desert rabbits are very fast.  Spring is coming quickly.  I've seen more lizards and quail this week.  I even saw a dead snake on the road yesterday.  What changes are you seeing as spring approaches?  Can you write a poem about that?  Have fun writing. 

A list poem

I've been working all day on putting together materials for how to write a list poem.

For an example I wrote three stanzas on a desert scene--so my list has to be all things in the desert.

Here is what I've started with.

Under the great blue sky,

there are yellow marigolds,

a tall yucca plant,

and a saguaro cactus

standing bold.

Inside the cactus

is a nesting elf owl

who yips and yaps

like the bark

from a coyote's howl.

Down in a hole

is a resting snake

who is out of the sun

and taking a break.

    I have some more stanzas to write, but I like the direction this poem is going.  Any ideas that you'd like to add are welcome.  

    Your task for today is to write your own list poem.  It could be a list of things in your desk, under your bed, things you like (or hate) at school, or things in your backpack.  Almost anything is a subject for a list poem and list poems do not have to rhyme.  But they should be fun.  I hope you'll share your list poem with me and remember to use all of your senses for good details.  

    Happy Poetry Month

Desert Couplet

Everyone hides from this broiling desert sun,

Tarantula, snake, lizard, and scorpion.

       A couplet is two lines, a pair or couple.  It brings together two things for a complete thought.  Although it doesn't have to be, most couplets are rhyming.  The challenge for the poet is to make the brief lines worthy of notice.  Basically what a couplet does is notice a moment and to say this matters and this matters. 
The animals I list are all from the desert around my house.  What animals are around your home?  What is the weather or the terrain like?  Can you put them together to write your own couplet?  Try several of them.